Homestuck is a webcomic written, illustrated, and animated by Andrew Hussie as part of MS Paint Adventures (MSPA). The webcomic centers on a group of teenagers who unwittingly bring about the end of the world through the installation of a beta copy of an upcoming computer game. Homestuck features a complex story and a large cast of characters, starring the four children John Egbert, Rose Lalonde, Dave Strider and Jade Harley. Andrew Hussie created an alien species, called trolls, that have a unique culture. Homestuck characters were particularly popular to cosplay at anime conventions during the early 2010s.
The first few acts of Homestuck center around four 13-year-old children. Early pages of Homestuck were experiments in "fan-sourced storytelling", where Hussie allowed readers of Homestuck to name its characters and make story suggestions. The main characters of Homestuck were all named by fans. The four main characters are presented as Internet friends who have technically never met one another but interact through an online chat application named PesterChum.
In the fifth "act" of Homestuck, Hussie introduced an alien species called "trolls", based on Internet trolls, who live on the planet of Alternia in another universe. While the first few acts of Homestuck focused on a more realistic theme of what it is like for a group of kids to be friends on the Internet, the trolls took on more explicit representations of facets of Internet culture. Homestuck aims to normalize and humanize internet cultures that are usually disfavored and rejected.
Trolls chat with unique typing quirks, inserting clues concerning the speaker's identity in their chat patterns. Troll culture features a complex system of romance, featuring four "quadrants", that was specifically designed to encourage shipping among Homestuck fans. With few exceptions, all trolls fall on the hemospectrum, a caste system dictated by blood color and its corresponding attributes, including lifespan, powers, personality, and rarity. Each troll also has an astrological sign that carries their blood color and reflects their personality.
Kids John Egbert
John Egbert is the main protagonist of Homestuck and the first character that is introduced. He is portrayed as a loyal "leader" of the group of kids, despite also being described as a "stereotypical mischief-making teen." Jokingly described by blogger Subdee as a "shoujo heroine", John's character is notably fond of bad films and has a seemingly irrational revulsion to the Betty Crocker brand. His weapon of choice is a hammer.
The first to enter the session, John spends much time communicating with the trolls, particularly Karkat, Terezi, and Vriska, who becomes his "patron troll." Under their guidance, he participates in the self-sustaining time loop that triggers his and his friend's births (through time travel and an in-universe science known as ecto-biology), achieves the god tier, and helps trigger the end game of his initial session by facilitating the delivery of "The Tumor". After he and Jade escape their initial session on a Prospitian Battleship, they travel for three years before arriving in the Alpha Kids' session. Once there, John mitigates the session's failure after he develops retcon powers, allowing him to literally retcon previous elements of the story, making key changes (most notably, preventing Vriska's death), eventually leading to the overall victory of the session, fighting and defeating Her Imperious Condescension in the final battle. After achieving this victory, the credits depict John slowly isolating himself from his friends as he gets older.
After the end of the original comic, a popular headcanon/fan theory arose that John would become a transgender woman under the name June. Hussie confirmed that there were plans for the character to be revealed as transgender when a fan of Homestuck was granted "a single wish" by finding a Toblerone hidden by Hussie. The silhouette of "June" has since appeared in the sequel, Homestuck: Beyond Canon.
Rose Lalonde
Rose Lalonde is portrayed as an "intellectual", both through her obsession with Lovecraftian literature and through her organizing and planning the group's movement during the story. She tends to speak and write in a formal, overwrought manner which contrasts to her messy room. Aside from her interest in the occult, the character also enjoys knitting and uses her knitting needles as her go-to weapons. In the first acts of Homestuck's story, Rose also updates a GameFAQs walkthrough of Sburb.
After some difficulties in entering the medium due to a local storm and poor internet collection, Rose begins to play the game and interact with trolls, much like her fellow players, developing a particularly close relationship with Kanaya Maryam. However, she quickly grows disillusioned with the game and ignores her questline in favor of causing destruction. This eventually causes her to enter a "Grimdark" mode, in which she fights and is killed by Bec Noir. After John revives her as her dream self, she joins Dave on his suicide mission to destroy the green sun (inadvertently creating it instead) and ascends to the god tier.
Rose, Dave, and the surviving trolls spend three years travelling to the Alpha kid's session, in which Rose begins a relationship with Kanaya and succumbs to alcoholism, rendering her largely useless when the kids arrive and contributing to the game's fail state. After John retcons the timeline, the new incarnation of Rose is no longer an alcoholic, having been deterred by Vriska, and is in a much better position to help her team, fighting and defeating Her Imperious Condescension in the final battle. The previous, pre-retcon version of Rose also gets proptotyped into Roxy's kernelsprite and survives as Jasprosesprite^2. In the credits, Rose and Kanaya are shown getting married and managing the brooding caverns.
Dave Strider
Dave Strider is a boy "so cool he only appreciates things ironically". He copied this behavior from his older brother (also his biological father through ectobiology and his only guardian), who collects Smuppets (puppets) and katanas on what Dave assumes is an ironic level. Dave has been described as "smart-cynical", and is John's best friend. Surrounded by low-quality video games and junk food, he wears aviator sunglasses, obscuring his eyes entirely, and wields a katana during combat.
After some difficulties entering the medium due to his brother's interference, Dave quickly assumes his role as the Knight of Time, time travelling throughout the session in order to make sure key events take place and secure huge amounts of resources in order to give their 24-hour session better odds (although due to his time travelling, from Dave's perspective, the session takes 72 hours). This is done in coordination with Terezi, who equally assists and annoys Dave as his patron troll. Dave eventually assists Jade with her duties of breeding the Genesis frog, but is killed by Bec Noir. After Jade revives him, he sets out on a suicide mission with Rose to destroy the green sun (inadvertently creating it instead) and ascends to the god tier.
Rose, Dave, and the surviving trolls spend three years travelling to the Alpha kids' session, and Dave begins a relationship with Terezi, which he ends once she enters a kismesissitude with Gamzee. During this time, he begins to realize that the relationship he had with his brother was abusive, and both looks forward to and dreads meeting his brother's alternate self in the alpha session. Dave begins to grow disillusioned with the idea of being a hero, and when confronted by Grimbark Jade in the new session, refuses to time travel. During the confrontation with Aranea, he dies trying to protect Jade. After John retcons the timeline, his relationship with Terezi is prevented, and he instead enters a relationship with Karkat. He contributes to the session's victory, defeating Union Jack alongside Dirk and Terezi. After their victory, he is depicted in the credits taking the rest of the kids 5,000 years into Earth C's future, where he rules over the Troll Kingdom with Karkat, Terezi, and Jade.
Dave is also the fictional creator of Hussie's spin-off webcomic Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, in-jokes of which are featured frequently in Homestuck. Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff are intentionally poorly made, featuring unsteady lines, liberal use of the spray paint tool, heavy JPEG artifacting, and the unpopular typeface Comic Sans.
Jade Harley
First shown on-screen during Homestucks third act, Shaenon Garrity described Jade Harley as "the most recalcitrant" of the four kids. Jade Harley lives on a remote island together with her dog, Becquerel, who is the First Guardian of Earth (later merging with him). As she can see the future through her dreams, Jade was the one who encouraged the other three kids to play the fictional video game Sburb, and therefore set the plot in motion. She often uses a hunting rifle in battle.
Jade's introduction to the story involves a number of misdirections and pattern breaks relative to the other kids, including revelations that she has already been awake as her dream self, her dream self controls a robot body who acts in Jade's place during certain moments of the story, her grandfather is deceased and taxidermized despite Jade referring to him in the present tense, and her dog, Becquerel, is actually an all-powerful "first guardian" of Earth. Her entry to the medium involves prototyping Becquerel, transforming Jack Noir into Bec Noir and causing him to become a threat to the session. Her kernelsprite is later prototyped with her deceased dream self, resulting in Jadesprite, who Jade is disgusted by due to her weepy demeanor and inaction. Jade performs her duty breeding the Genesis Frog, but is murdered by the Courtyard Droll. Due to the loyalty he has acquired from Becquerel's prototyping, Bec Noir brings Jade to her quest bed, where she achieves the God Tier as the Witch of Space, merging with her dreamself and also gaining the powers of a first guardian. She uses these powers to shrink the four planets of the session, place herself and John on a Prospitian Battleship, and launch themselves to the new session.
During the three years of travel, Jade dates and breaks up with Davesprite. Upon her arrival, she meets Jake, who she had only communicated with via letters, but is quickly taken over by Her Imperious Condescension, transforming her into "Grimbark Jade," antagonizing her friends under mind control. In the altercation between Her Imperious Condescension and Aranea, she is killed by a falling tower. Dave attempts to revive her by bringing her to Jane, but Bec Noir and Peregrine Mendicant, prototyped with Becquerel, are protective over her body, and kill Dave. In the new retconned timeline, with the alternate versions of John and Davesprite killed (in order to be replaced by new versions), Jade was alone during her trip to the new session. Vriska, alive in the retcon, puts Jade to sleep before she can become a threat as her Grimbark self. In the final battle, Jade attempts to mediate between Bec Noir and Peregrine Mendicant. After their victory, she is depicted ruling over the Troll Kingdom with Karkat, Terezi, and Dave.
Jane Crocker Jane Crocker is the heiress to the Betty Crocker fortune, and she is the symbolic leader of the four alpha kids. She wields a weapon similar to a pitchfork that vacillates between a pronged or spoon-like head depending on the Betty Crocker branding at the time. Her genetic son is, due to the "Paradox Clone" phenomenon, actually her grandfather and an alternate version of John Egbert, whose sister was Jake English's grandmother, Jade. Jane is particularly close to her fellow Alpha Kids, as well as the cherub Calliope.